Tag Archives: Smile Smile Smile

Paragraphs 15 through 18 read: “Dr. Bertram Pitt, a
cardiologist at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, co-wrote an
accompanying editorial in the journal and notes that the relationship betweencardiovascular disease and depression poses intriguing research
questions.”

” ‘The current therapy of depression doesn’t seem to be
doing that much for depression, and certainly hasn’t broken the link between
depression and cardiovascular disease,’ he said in an interview
from Ann Arbor.”

“In fact, he said there’s some evidence that
certainantidepressantsincreasecardiovascular

death when they’re taken with beta–blockers.”

” ‘So we have sort
of a real challenge that the current treatment of depression doesn’t seem to be
that effective’.”

TORONTO ­ We
hear the advice “Don’t worry, be happy,” and “Smile, smile, smile” in upbeat
song lyrics. And when it comes to the health benefits of a sunny disposition,
they might be on to something.

A 10-year study that tracked more than
1,700 adults in Nova Scotia suggests people who are usually happy, enthusiastic
and content are less likely to develop heart disease.

The study,
published Thursday in the European Heart Journal, is believed to be the first to
show an independent relationship between clinically assessed emotions and
coronary heart disease.

“Being happy means you have less likelihood of
having a heart attack 10 years later,” said psychologist Karina Davidson,
director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia
University Medical Center in New York.

“What we don’t know yet is if
you’re not a happy person and you were to get an intervention to help you

increase your happiness, would that offset your risk?”

The team looked at
the association between positive affect – defined as the experience of
pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and
contentment – and cardiovascular events in 1,739 adults in the 1995 Nova Scotia
Health Survey. Trained nurses interviewed the 862 men and 877 women.

“We
taped as they talked about their daily lives, what stresses them, how they
handle those stressors, and we then coded whether they had a lot of positive
affect,” said Davidson, who hails from Vancouver and began the research in 1995
while she was at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“We had to wait quite a
few years as these people had heart attacks, and then we looked to see whether
being happy predicted fewer heart attacks, and indeed it did.”

The
researchers found that over the decade, participants with no positive affect
were at 22 per cent higher risk of heart attack or angina than those with a
little positive affect, who were themselves at 22 per cent higher risk than
those with moderate positive affect.

But Davidson notes that this is an
observational study, and rigorous clinical trials are needed to support the
findings.

A study would need to follow people with low levels of
happiness, and randomize them so that some receive usual care while others would
receive intervention from a trained professional to help identify ways toincrease joy and excitement in their daily lives.

“The key to adding
pleasurable or enjoyable activities to one’s life is that they also be heart
healthy,” Davidson noted.

“So if you can learn to enjoy going for a walk
after dinner, or going to the gym to do a regular routine, or you always enjoyed
hiking in your younger years and so you go on some hikes on a regular basis,
that will surely improve your heart health.”

One problem, she observed,
is that some people enjoy smoking, eating ice cream or other activities that
aren’t considered heart healthy – so they’d need to be steered away from
those.

Dr. Bertram Pitt, a cardiologist at the University of Michigan
School of Medicine, co-wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal and notes
that the relationship between cardiovascular disease and depression poses
intriguing research questions.

“The current therapy of depression doesn’t
seem to be doing that much for depression, and certainly hasn’t broken the link
between depression and cardiovascular disease,” he said in an interview from Ann
Arbor.

In fact, he said there’s some evidence that certain

antidepressantsincreasecardiovasculardeath when they’re taken withbeta–blockers.

“So we have sort of a real challenge that the current
treatment of depression doesn’t seem to be that effective.”

The study by
Davidson is important because it points out there may be some new approaches, he
said.

“I think if you can be happy and do things that make you happy, you
certainly can‘t lose, and you may have a great advantage in reducing your

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